It’s been a minute since I released any new Jaimee Eat World, but I’m back with a very different approach to “Movielike”.

Listen to Jimmy Eat World’s original recording here:

Now, check out mine:

It’s probably one of the more underrated albums in the bands catalogue, or at least it seems to be one that doesn’t get a ton of attention but it ranks pretty high for me – especially this song.

I did create lyric graphics for this post but I’m quickly running out of media space on this website so, I’m not including them today while I decide how I want to proceed with these going forward.

But we can still talk about it!

Official lyrics:

A face coming down in streaks
All alone with your things
The apartment still ringing
Clean up and make my start
Not the way I hoped for
Welcome to New York

[Chorus]
Nothing movie-like
And nothing magic
People just tire to fight the constant battle
Waiting to see a sign?
Then you’ve seen the best already

[Verse 2]
The train comes at 1:15
He said, “Maybe I’ll leave
Give you time, let you think.”
Don’t know just what he wants
‘Cause I’m all that I’ve got
But this time, I’m on it

[Chorus]
Nothing movie-like
And nothing magic
People just tire to fight the constant battle
Waiting to see a sign?
Then you’ve seen the best already

Then you’ve seen the best already
Then you’ve seen his best already

[Bridge]
This time believe it
Believe me
This time you’d better believe it
You know I’m gone

[Chorus]
Nothing movie-like
Nothing magic
People just tire to fight the constant battle
Waiting to see a sign?
Then you’ve seen the best already

---

I made a pretty subtle changes to my version of this song where I don’t repeat the “then you’ve seen the best already” as many times as the band do in the original and I end with the “then you’ve seen his best already,” which might be one of the most coy little nuance lyrics this band has ever managed to squeeze into a song that is otherwise super widely open to interpretation. I also changed the bridge a fair bit where I only focus on, “This time, believe,” and “You know I’m gone.”

I’m not sure how many rotations into spinning this one it was when I actually honed in on what was being talked about here and I’m certain that my own interpretation is probably different from the guys that penned it, but there’s almost no way that I’m that far off.

What I love about Movielike is, like your favourite romcom, the premise is super simple. You’ve made the decision to move to a new city to be with the person you love only for that to crumble almost as soon as you arrive (insert whatever nefarious reason of your own choosing here) and you find yourself ironically looking at yourself in the mirror one day in a, “well, that didn’t go as planned,” kind of way and it’s only ironic because you KNOW you were questioning the decision on some innate level in the weeks leading up to the move.

But you’re a hopeless romantic with big dreams that your small Kansas city town can’t support, so you laughed in the face of intuition and went anyways.

The chorus comes in almost too soon for us to determine what it’s really talking about yet – another fan-favourite of Jimmy Eat World’s elusive writing team – “we’re going to hint at it, but we won’t help you figure this out til later“.

In verse 2 when we’re semi-introduced to a “he” it only brings fourth more questions. This band has a funny way of keeping you guessing about the type of relationship they’re highlighting and while you can almost always assume and be pretty bang on that it’s a romantic one between a woman and a man, every few albums they sprinkle in a track like this which brings their emotional and spiritual depth into a new and often unexpected realm.

I think i’ve mentioned it before but the day I had my own, uh… awakening? That these guys were making all sorts of religious references was also the day I had to remind myself that they’re based in Arizona which, at least from my outlier perspective, is a pretty God-conscious state.

For who could be delivering signs and messages in a surreal almost mystical way, but God himself?

Looking at this song (and several others come to mind) in this way from this band is something that really does set them apart from other popular rock bands. You’d be hard pressed to place them in the Christina rock genre because they’re just not super up front about it, but most of us can agree that music itself has a way of provoking a religious experience when it hits you in all the right ways.

They’re like Slayer, but for pop-rockers. I remember being like 12 and someone told me Slayer were a Christian band and I was like, “NUH UH!” and they were all, “UH HUH!” and it was a wild time to be alive.

While I feverishly want to delve into what types of mystic signs one might see when they’re in the midst of a life crisis and can’t find guidance from the world around them, instead turning to something unseen or unknown to bring them to a state of peace, I think we’ll have time for that somewhere down the line when we poke around some of the bands more elusive tracks.

Anyways – the production on Movielike is truly top-notch. It’s one of those songs that makes you as a songwriter and producer want to try to replicate someday just to get a sense of how it all gets put together. If I’m ever able to listen back to a track of my own and feel the way Movielike makes me feel, I’ll know I’ve done something really special.

I didn’t quite do that with mine this time – instead I leaned into the radio-theatre side inspired by this song, including some sound grabs to make my cover more cinematic in a literal sense.

‘Til next time.